Returning to Unfinished Business

 

I said I wasn't going to do this to myself for another year, but then I got an email from a fellow researcher and changed my mind. It just so happens this DNA cousin has been wondering about the same brick wall ancestor as I've been, and sent me a note theorizing why this mystery ancestor—my mother-in-law's second great-grandmother Lydia Miller—might have been a challenge to trace.

I've tackled Lydia Miller before, but despite that recent attempt, the chase to find her roots has remained unfinished business. In fact, last May was my most recent opportunity to ponder the roots of this woman who became wife to William H. Gordon and then, after his premature death, to Benedict Palmer. And yet, we'll so soon again be taking up the question of just who Lydia's parents might have been.

This time, we'll let DNA testing play a larger part in the chase to find Lydia's roots, and also complete a review of her descendants from her second marriage with Benedict Palmer of Mercer County, Ohio. Hopefully, some Palmer descendants will surface from among multiple DNA matches to help guide this quest.

In one way, it's frustrating to think that so little is known about a family relationship so relatively close—after all, Lydia, dying in 1895 in Ohio, is only a second great-grandmother to my mother-in-law. A life history like hers should be so reachable...and yet it's not. Hers may have been a story with twists and turns, with details buried from plain sight. This may take some sleuth work to uncover—if any progress can be made at all.

For this coming month of May as I turn to dig deeper into my mother-in-law's roots, Lydia Miller, her parents and descendants will become our focus as the fifth of my Twelve Most Wanted for 2026. As with my research challenge for January, hopefully this May's ancestral discoveries will come through the teamwork of comparing notes with other researchers who have connected with me over the years—specifically with those DNA cousins who share this ancestral line with my husband. As research tools evolve, our ability to push back farther in time accelerates—something for which I am ecstatically grateful.